


The Shape of Her Name

by cantodelcolibri



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Some Fluff, he's got selective mutism ok, link is pining, nonverbal link, sidon is kinda pining too but it's a lot more low-key
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-11-01 20:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10929672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cantodelcolibri/pseuds/cantodelcolibri
Summary: Link has got something he needs to say. Desperately needs to say, but equally doesn't want to. It's quite an important thing, about Mipha, about what he remembers, about all he doesn't. About Sidon and how he's not sure if what he felt for Mipha holds a candle to what he now feels for the Prince.He's got something he needs to say. Problem is, he just can't seem to find the words to say it.





	1. One

_ ‘What were we like?’  _

“Oh, forgive me. I wasn’t looking. Come again?”  

 

* * *

 

After an admittedly easier-than-expected fight with Windblight Ganon, Link hadn’t really been looking forward to being fussed after by the grateful Rito. Because  _ fuss _ was putting it lightly. No one believed him when he tried telling them the pain was gone, and his wounds would soon be as well. They eyed the empty bottle of his hearty elixir and insisted he stay a night at the inn and get looked at by a healer. 

Link fought back a sigh. 

As the old owl Rito Kaneli gave him a rather impressive bow, Link considered his options. Stay and put up a show, paste on a smile, and try to repress his newly gained memories, or use the slate to spirit himself away?

So, once the Divine Beast had taken perch on the rocky crag overlooking the quiet town, he made his decision. He smiled at Kaneli, secured the bow onto his back, and took the Sheikah slate from its spot on his hip. He waved goodbye and signed  _ ‘Thank you,’ _ even as he disappeared to the Ne’ez Yohma Shrine, and the Zora Domain. Kaneli hooted in surprise when suddenly all that stood before him was the silver light of a moonbeam.

With Medoh back under control and Revali’s Gale in his possession, Link was fairly certain he could finally make it up the slippery slope that was the fish’s tail that made up the grand tower of the Zora Domain. The children of the forest liked high places, and the tail fin was never a spot he could reach with his glider alone. He nodded, plan made, and snuck out of the shrine’s cave to reach higher ground to take off from.  

The moon was high, the Domain asleep for all but the guards, and Link had not expected to crash-land in the Prince’s arms when the Gale proved harder to master than expected. 

Nevermind that he caught the Zoran Prince mid-heartfelt-ramble in his tumble. And while falling from the sky with a panicked yelp wasn’t their usual form of greeting, finding Sidon doing a strange sort of penance at the foot of his sister’s statue wasn’t unusual at all.

And it was only natural that they keep to tradition, and spend a few short minutes together in their equally busy lives. Prince Sidon invited him to sit at the railing by the main bridge, where Ledo would no doubt be hammering away if it were any decent time of day. There they sat. There they talked. 

There, Link proceeded to stumble over his words.

 

* * *

 

In retrospect, Link’s habit of waiting until his conversation partners began to glance away in response to his wordless silence to rapid-fire sign what he desperately did not want to say yet needed to say was not the best idea. It resulted in moments such as these, with golden eyes trained on him too intently, determined to make up for what the prince no doubt took as a failing in his courtly manners and hospitality. Link was intimately aware it was more of a failing in his own courage. 

_ ‘What were we like?’  _ He asked again. He made no move to further indicate Mipha with a nod at the statue looking serenely down at them, but a quick glance at the prince showed that maybe he should have. 

Sidon looked… confused. He covered it with a friendly smile.

“What were we like? You and I, specifically? I assume you mean when I was young and you were—”

Link shook his head hurriedly. Sidon looked down at him, head tilted to the side, his tail swaying softly in the wind. So Link began again, this time making sure to use Mipha’s statue to his advantage.  _ ‘No. Us. Mipha and I.’ _ The shape of her name still felt strange in his hand.  _ ‘You talk to her often and I…’ _

He let his hands fall back in his lap and let out a huff of frustration. He didn’t know how to say what he didn’t want to say but needed to say after all. 

Sidon’s hands went up in a pacifying gesture. “Ah, I see! Forgive me for the initial misunderstanding, Champion. I see now.”

Now Sidon looked… sad. He looked out, over the lantern and luminous stone-lit road, at the specks in the distance that were no doubt moblins sleeping in the late hour. Link silently let him gather his thoughts.

“You were… happy.” Sidon’s voice was more subdued than what Link was accustomed to hearing. But then it seemed like the prince’s easy mood rose and hid like the sun. And now it was the moon that reflected off his dermal skin. “I admit that I do not remember much. I never met any of the other champions, and only seldom saw your Princess Zelda. You came around when you were on an errand for the Princess, or before your time as the appointed Knight, when you helped your father escort the nobles that visited our Domain.” 

“You were always with her, with Mipha.” Sidon took a moment to turn around to look at her likeness. “At least when I wasn’t selfishly demanding your attention like all the other hatchlings around the palace. A habit of ours not broken to this day, I’ve seen.” They both chuckled, though Sidon’s was in more of a self-deprecating manner. Link stared at him, half in attention at his words and half to take in the picture he painted. So much bigger than him, Sidon cast Link in shadow against the light of the moon. The red of his skin looked muted and dark, faint lines of his scars almost invisible. 

“You always looked happiest together.” Sidon smiled, the softness offset by the sharpness of his teeth. Link smiled too, trying to imagine that happiness. Mipha and him atop the spout of Ruta’s trunk. The way the sunset made the red of her soft skin glow, and warmed Zelda’s favor across her chest.  

How would Sidon look in the Champions’ garb? The blue had contrasted nicely with Mipha’s red, so what if— 

 

What if their roles had been reversed, and the prince born first?

Would Sidon have won the fight his sister lost? Or would Waterblight Ganon have proven to be too much for him as well as all the other champions?

Would either of them have had to die if Link had managed save them, as he was supposed to? 

 

Distantly, he was aware he was still hearing Sidon’s voice, but Link’s mind was far from their perch on the railing.

 

His mind was stuck in a past he didn’t know. But the state of Hyrule was more than enough for him to form his own conclusions, if not jog his memory. 

The sword that seals away the darkness. That was his entire  _ thing, _ what was supposed to set him apart from the other knights in the castle. The Master Sword chose him.  _ It chose him. _

Hylia chose Zelda. The Sword chose him. And they had failed. Hylia had failed Zelda. Link had failed the Sword. And Zelda was trapped, fighting a war that never should have been hers to fight, and the champions were dead. Revali and Daruk’s gifts kept his chest warm, and  _ Mipha _ —

 

Sidon’s voice broke through the static of his growing guilt and anxiety. 

He said, “But then, I suppose what would most ease your heart to know is that she loved you. Very much so.” 

Link spun on the railing and stood up. Despite the fact he had asked to hear it, he couldn’t bear to any more. To hear of who he had been, who they had been, what they could have been together.

They had been in love. The material proof of it was stuffed in his pack. Her trident on a display in his home, too much of a reminder for him to bear using it. 

He looked over his shoulder at the lifeless Mipha carved from stone, then over at her very much living brother. 

Her brother, bright, bold, beautiful. Scarred but  _ alive. _ Always smiling at him, the flash of his teeth distracting enough for Link to momentarily forget his moroseness. 

“Leaving already, then? You truly are amazing. Three Divine Beasts taken care of isn’t enough to merit a moment of rest, is it? Well, don’t let me keep you! Do you need anything for your journey?” 

Link shook his head. He took the Sheikah slate from his hip and swiped through the incomplete map of Hyrule to find the Wasteland Tower. There was a stable somewhere near the Bazaar, or so a traveller had told him. If he was lucky, it would only be a short glide away. If he was unlucky, he would have enough lizalfos to tear his way through to combat the feeling of helplessness that had a knack of overcoming him. 

Before he could activate the teleportation beam, however, a hand clasped around his shoulder. 

Given their difference in sizes, Sidon’s hand actually clasped around most of his upper arm, too. Link turned his head and jumped a bit in surprise when he saw that Sidon had moved silently and his face was  _ right there. _ Link pled to the ever silent Hylia that his face hadn’t just gone as red as it suddenly felt. 

“Ah, Link before you go, may I just say…” Sidon didn’t draw back his hand. “I’m glad you’re safe, and thank you for coming here. It puts my mind at ease to see you’re doing well. And I’m always happy when you indulge me in conversation, even when it’s at the result of you falling from dangerous heights! It was good luck you happened to land in my arms!” 

_ ‘What can I say? I’m quite the catch!’ _ Link’s hands were moving before he could think to stop himself. He winced.

“Well.” Sidon got one singular word out before erupting into loud laughter. His hand fell from Link’s shoulder and clasped over his mouth. His gills flared as he fought to suppress it in the palm of his hand, and Link looked on helplessly, all too aware of the heat rising to his face.

It took a few more moments of gasping breaths for Sidon to calm, but when he did, he stood and rewarded Link with a smile that was doing the redness of his face no favors. 

“Ah! My dearest friend! As I said, don’t let me keep you. But,” Sidon paused to chuckle indulgently, “Although I am sorry you had to see me in such a moment of weakness, I am delighted it was enough to  _ reel you in _ .”

Nice of him to continue with the fish puns. Nice for him. Not for Link’s already red face. 

_ ‘Bye Sidon.’ _ His hands weren’t shaking. They most definitely were not. 

“Yes, I suppose it’s time.” Sidon sighed heavily. Link nodded up at him and touched his gathered fingertips to his forehead then away, sending up a mock salute. The prince responded with a stately bow. Link turned and began to run. He was fussing with the slate when from behind him he heard a cheerful,  _ “Catch _ you later!” 

Rivan and Dunma, guarding both sides of the entrance to the Domain, groaned with Link as he ran past and activated the slate’s teleportation beam. 

It wasn’t until he was safely landing at another shrine that he realized he hadn’t found that Korok.

 

* * *

* * *

 

He made his camp along the highest ridges of Gerudo Canyon, far from the main road. He lit a fire, knowing he was far enough so the flock of keese flying lower down wouldn’t spot him. Neither would the dots of bokoblins and moblins that camped out far below. 

He speared a fish he’d rubbed rock salt over as a preservative earlier and held it above the flames. As he fought to keep awake, he thought of his short evening with the prince. 

 

What he did not want to say but desperately needed to was that he did not know if what he had felt for Mipha was anything similar to what he now felt for Sidon. 

Sidon, who was kind. Who went out of his way to greet Link whenever he went to the Domain, despite the work his station demanded of him. Sidon, who showed concern for his well-being, but never in an overbearing way. He didn’t judge when Link stormed out of the cave beneath the throne room and went to fight the lynel that arrived at each blood moon. Instead, he patiently waited out of reach of the electric arrows at Link’s insistence and scrambled up the cliffside on his short legs when he heard the lynel in its final death throes to tend to his wounds. 

Having him wait was the only plan they could agree upon. Sidon would hear nothing of Link going up on his own to fight the beast, and Link was hard-headed enough to deny any offer of sending up Zoran soldiers to aid him. 

 

A sudden gust of wind knocked Link’s spear aside and threatened his little fire. Mind back in the present, Link shuffled over to block the wind with his body, and turned the spear in his hands to roast the other side of the fish. 

Eyelids heavy and ears drooping, Link began to nod off again. 

His mind took him back to Shatterback Point, to that lynel.  

 

* * *

 

Sidon always listened to Link’s worries. Shock arrows would take him down in one hit, and Sidon wasn’t hard-headed enough to ignore his warnings and go charging into danger. He always waited. Always. 

Except for the one time he heard Link’s scream of pain instead of the lynel’s, and rushed up anyway. Moments away from death, Link clutched at the wound at his side as the lynel reared back and from beneath it, Link saw Sidon run up the path just as those hooves rushed down and smashed his ribs. In the dark, all he could clearly make out was the molten gold of his wide eyes. 

He heard Sidon scream his name. Spear at the ready, muscular arm pulled back, his aim was true. The head of his spear embedded in the flank of the lynel, and Sidon was just in time to hear his sister’s voice and see that green glow bathe Link’s battered body.  

_ “It was my pleasure.” _

At the foot of the beast’s carcass, Link found out that even if Zora were incapable of tears, they could still cry. 

He pushed a heavy hind leg from on top of his own and ran to meet Sidon halfway, wounds healed, pain gone but for the knot in his stomach at seeing the way Sidon fell to his knees in front of him, as if that would help him get a closer look at the little Hylian. Large hands checked over him, his arms, torso, head, legs. Chanting his name, over and over, voice only a breath above a whisper. 

“Link! Link, Link, Link! You! How are you-? I thought you were dead! I feared you were gone! I saw-!” 

Link made shushing noises, alarmed at how torn up the prince sounded. Taken aback by the cold fear that shook his voice. Sidon’s breathing was ragged, and he seemed to be struggling to take in air at all. 

It was Link’s turn to fuss. His hands found the gills at Sidon’s side, he felt as they fluttered too quickly for regular breathing, which would explain the gasping sobs currently wracking the prince’s body. 

“Was that…? Was…?” 

Link thought that maybe if he got him into water, his breathing would return to normal. He glanced around, hoping to spy some pond nearby but found nothing. 

It was dark, so all Sidon could do was spread Link’s hand open and press his own clawed hand to it. 

_ ‘Mipha?’ _ Link felt signed against his palm. The shape of her name was like an ice bucket of water. He had heard. Sidon had heard his sister’s voice, even after Link had told him and King Dorephan that she was gone. 

Link let out a shuddering breath, rose to the tips of his toes and buried his face where Sidon’s shoulder met his neck. He nodded. 

“She comes to help me, sometimes.” He whispered, the words coming surprisingly easy.

Sidon didn’t comment on that. He was still shaking, but now his shoulders quivered with the little laugh that bubbled out of him. With a voice full of awe, he asked, “She is still here?”

Link thought back to Vah Ruta, the sadness in her voice when she told him of her fate. 

“She…” The words were gone. Link exhaled heavily and shuffled in their awkward embrace. He found one of the prince’s hands and flattened it, then pressed his own hand over his palm.  _ ‘She’s waiting.’ _

“Is she in Vah Ruta even now?”

_ ‘Yes.’  _

Sidon took his hand from where it was held against Link’s. He brought it up to cup his face instead. “And you’re not injured? Truly?”

Link bit his lip and shook his head. 

Sidon sighed. Quieted. He let himself fall onto the dew covered grass to stare out where the elephant’s laser targeted Hyrule Castle. Link hesitantly took a seat beside him. As soon as he settled down comfortably, Sidon spoke up again. 

“She never did know when to take a break. I shouldn’t be so surprised!” 

Link made to take Sidon’s hand to sign again, but all he got was a chuckle and Sidon’s hand covering both of his own. 

“I can see perfectly well in the dark, my friend. Do speak freely.” 

Link filed that information away for later and freed his hands.  _ ‘You never speak of her if you can help it.’ _

“Yes.” Sidon’s gaze was soft. Softer than Link had ever seen it. In that moment, he looked the spitting image of his sister. “Yes, I know. But I think perhaps I should start.”

 

* * *

 

Link burned his fish. Charred, more like. Only about half was salvageable, and he fell asleep with a half-empty stomach.

When he awoke, he only got up when after a few stubborn tries he realized he was unable to hide from the sun by covering his eyes with the hood of his cloak. Irritable and hungry, he packed up and glided off the edge, opting to keep off the main road and away from the enemies standing bold as the day in the sunshine.

He found the stable. Then he cooked, then he found from the man who had shared a bit of butter with him that if he had kept to the roads he could have maybe saved four lives.

He backtracked on a full stomach and saved them anyway.

After receiving words of gratitude, he stepped past the stable’s fences and was immediately met with a heat that was  _ unbearable. _

He backtracked and waved down Beedle before he ambled away to buy anything to help him battle the heat.

He figured he would not be able to traverse the desert in the half hour the elixir would get him, so he grit his teeth and climbed to the highest point he could reach without being scorched by the sun. He downed the little bottle in one go, braced himself, and furled open his glider.

There was little to do in the air but appreciate the scenery. And think.

Thinking always ended with thoughts of Sidon. And the more he thought about him, the more he could trick himself into thinking that what he had felt for Mipha, whatever it had been, did indeed closely resemble, if not match, the fluttering in his chest whenever Sidon smiled at him.

And if that was the case, then what exactly was it? He had no other basis for comparison. Truly, he did not even know what to label what he was feeling. The only love he now knew of was his devotion to Zelda. To see her again, and to understand.

And if that was the case, what did that make of him? The inconsequential Hylian Champion that failed at his job, but nevertheless managed to fall for both of the Zora next in line for their throne? What gall did he have? What right?

What did it matter? What mattered was saving Zelda. Saving Zelda took precedence over everything, especially something as unimportant as his fickle feelings.

Link frowned as he pulled closed his glider to fall close to a Gerudo woman standing guard outside what appeared to be an open air market.  He greeted her, she told him he had made it to the Bazaar, and he felt a spark of memory looking over the large stone structure of the inn. 

 

In a daze, he stepped closer to the clear spring, thoughts of Sidon escaping as memories of Zelda came rushing back.

 

What did it matter? What did his feelings matter? He didn’t have a right to them, to feel them. 

 

And what did it matter? It wasn’t as if Sidon even remotely felt the same. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i reserve the right to make this longer but also the right to not. idk.


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i made it longer

The shape of her name was the first thing he learned. 

“Am I doing it correctly? Mipha? Is it like….?”  _ This. _ Like this, he meant to say. But the word caught in his throat, as his words seemed to be getting into the habit of doing. 

“Yes!” Mipha encouraged him with a happy voice. “Yes, exactly! Try it once more!” 

Link brought his hand just below his mouth again, repeated the motion and let his hands fall over each other to roll in waves as his head tipped to the side to ask the question. 

_ ‘Mipha?’ _

“Yes! That’s perfect, Link!!” 

_ ‘Mipha.’ _ He repeated. Mipha laughed, the sound of it bright like the sunlight shining down on the Domain. 

“Mipha!” said a new voice running up to them, feet slapping against the water spilled over from the sleeping pools. Link watched, transfixed, at the way Mipha’s tail followed the movement of her head when she turned it sharply to look over her shoulder. He watched the way the silver filigre adorning her twinkled in the light, and admired the flash of her teeth when her smile widened at the little boy running up to them on short stumpy legs.

“Sidon!” She called out joyfully, “Sidon, come! Come, look!” 

But when Mipha turned her head, Sidon got a look at the Hylian in front of her and faltered. He drew back bashfully instead, and only got closer when Mipha outstretched her arm and took him by the hand to gently pull him into her lap. 

“It’s only Link, Sidon.” 

“Hello.” Link waved his fingers at the boy, and Sidon bit his lip before murmuring a quiet little, “Hello,” back. Link smiled, and stood up to compare their heights. 

“Look! You come up to my knees now!” 

Sidon took offense to that. “No! It’s only ‘cause I’m sitting on sissy! Look!” He hopped off her lap and stood on the tiled floor, trying to stretch himself up. But, toddler that he was, he didn’t realize his sister’s lap was taller than his legs, and standing he fell short of Link’s knees. 

Link snorted a laugh at his dismayed expression, then broke out in loud guffaws when Sidon found the situation unacceptable and clambered back onto Mipha to  _ stand _ on her lap. 

“There, see? Now I’m as tall as your… uh… your um… Mipha?” He cast a look to his sister.

She laughed. “Thighs?” 

“Yeah!”  

“Oh, well then.” Link put on a grandiose voice and and got himself a charmed smile from Mipha as a reward. “You must forgive me, your highness, for the insolence of my words! Please, have mercy, I beseech you!”  

He swept into a bow and both Mipha and Sidon swiped at his hair for his theatrics. Link looked up and smiled at them, but his new pose gave Sidon a look at the newest addition to his ensemble. 

“A sword?” Sidon gasped and slid off his sister’s knees to rush over behind Link to get a better look at the short sword strapped to his back. “A real sword?! Are you a knight now, Link? Will you protect Hyrule too? And the princess? Like your dad? Like Trello and Rivan?”  

“I-” And just like that, the words were gone. Link looked up from the child hopping circles around his feet and cast a desperate look to Mipha. Mipha, the princess of Zora Domain, counterpart to Zelda. Mipha, who laughed whenever he asked her after her age. Despite their nearly matching heights, he knew she surpassed him by more years than he surpassed Zelda. She, unlike him, was fit for the weapon she wielded in battle. She was ferocious with her trident, and worthy of it.

Zelda’s twelfth birthday celebration had barely passed. And Link wasn’t ready. He’d been training, training for ages, training for as long as he could remember, but he couldn’t live up to their expectations. If his father said he wasn’t good enough now, what if he wasn’t ever? 

“I- I… Miph—” 

Mipha rose to a crouch and held out a hand to Sidon. “Sidon, come here.” 

He went, mouth downturned in an uncertain little frown. 

“Sidon, why don’t you ask Link to show you what he just learned?” She prompted. Sidon tilted his head to the side, questioning. His long tail flopped along with the movement. He turned around and Link clamped his mouth shut before he croaked for lack of being able to speak.

“What did you learn?” The little prince asked, his sister smiling encouragement just over his scarlet head. 

Link froze up, but a little head nod from Mipha urged him on. He lifted his right hand to his mouth in a fist, opened his his hand and pressed his thumb and pinky finger together, then brought that hand down over his left and imitated waves over an ocean. 

_ ‘Mipha.’ _

Sidon let out a gasp and turned his head quickly to Mipha then back to Link. He laughed, and then his little hands started moving too, trying to engage Link in a conversation he was nowhere near fluent enough to take part of. Mipha laughed at his frantic expression and slowly lowered Sidon’s hands. 

“Not so fast, brother.” 

“Can Link swim with us now? Can he? If he can do the water-speak can he swim with us now too?” Sidon babbled quickly. Link raised his hands and shook them. 

“N-no, I—” Link tried, but this time the words caught because forty pounds of baby fat bowled him over into the pool behind them.  

Gasping and desperately trying to find his way back to the pool’s ledge, he heard Sidon laughing and splashing behind him. 

“I can teach you! We can both teach you, right Mipha!?” 

Mipha pulled Link sputtering from the water and then dove in to gather her brother in a reprimanding hug. She blew air against his cheek and he squealed in delight. 

“Yes. Why don’t you teach him your name, Sidon?” She whispered sweetly against the hammer crown of his head. Sidon flashed the dripping wet and mildly annoyed Link a grin. He lifted his hands.  

The shape of her name was the first thing he learned. The shape of Sidon’s was the second.

* * *

 

Of course when Link awoke, he didn’t know if it had been reality, or just a dream. 

 

The Bazaar’s innkeeper warned him of the futility of his efforts to enter Gerudo Town, but Link politely waved her off. 

This time, he had a plan. 

“Vai?” Link asked, pitching his voice higher behind the thin veil he wore over the lower half of his face. The Gerudo woman standing at Gerudo Town’s entrance holding a nasty looking spear looked visibly relieved when he spit out the word instead of his new made up sign. Gerudo, plus the Zoran sign for female. He thought it was clear enough. 

“Yes, vai. You are vai, and so are permitted entry. Voe, your men, are not allowed.”

_ ‘Voe. Vai. Vai. Voe. I am voe.’ _ He practiced the new terms to the vai standing guard outside Gerudo Town.  _ ‘I am voe and you do not understand, but I am voe.”  _ She smiled at him, a stark change to the way she had frowned and snarled when he last made his appearance wearing nothing but his underwear and a belt full of heat resistance potions. How else was he supposed to beat the heat?

“You are an amusing one, little Hylian. Enter, and enjoy yourself. We will keep everyone inside safe.”

Link took more than a small amount of pleasure signing,  _ ‘I am voe!’  _ cheerfully as he made his way past the guards and into the town proper. Risky, if anyone inside happened to study Zoran sign, but given that they were in the middle of a desert that no Zora would traverse for fear of being cooked alive…

Suffice to say, somehow he doubted it. It wasn’t until he stood back in front of a bustling marketplace that the guard’s words registered in his mind. 

Keep everyone safe from what?

 

From the Yiga base hiding somewhere in the vast desert, it seemed. Link brought his hand up to rub it over his face, but stopped when he remembered the veil. He stepped away from the pair of women that told him about the guards’ plight and prepared himself, mentally, for having to take on an entire group of the assassins that had plagued him since he made it off of the Great Plateau.

He walked past stalls, casually eyeing the merchants’ wares. He bumped into a rather stunning but distressed looking woman who lamented her lack of flint, and so he pulled open his pack and dropped a load of them at her feet. She thanked him by taking him to her studio to carefully craft him a circlet of sapphire. 

“Oh, it matches your eyes!” She crooned as he very carefully tried it on over his head scarf. “You look absolutely darling! Why, if you’ve got your eye on anyone, I am sure this look would certainly work in your favor! They’d be smitten in an instant!” 

Link immediately thought of Sidon, then immediately wished he hadn’t. 

_ ‘Stop thinking about him. You have a job to do, and Zelda’s waiting.’ _ He scolded himself. Then he looked up, thanked her for the jewelry, and left. He was already making plans to visit the Great Fairy in Tabantha to see if he could improve the circlet’s effectiveness.

...Or maybe the Fairy near Tarrey Town. At least she didn’t proposition him to stay with her every time he visited. And she didn’t linger when an enchantment to his damn pants required a kiss. 

Link fought back another urge to rub his face, but he didn’t fight back a slight shudder. 

“Are you cold, little vai? If you’re cold now, I urge you to find good lodging for the evening! Nights in the desert do get quite chilly.” Said a voice from behind his left shoulder. He looked up to see a pale Gerudo woman step up to his side, her long hair more pink than it was red. 

_ ‘I’m fine, thank you.’ _ He told her. 

“Oh!” The woman took a small step back in surprise. “A Hylian vai that knows the language of the Zora! You must be well travelled!” Her eyes considered him with great interest, then her pink painted lips parted and she asked, “Won’t you join our class, ‘Voe and You’?”  

_ ‘Voe and You?’ _

“It’s a… dating class, of sorts. It’s to help Gerudo women familiarize themselves with voe when they venture out of the Town to find a husband. An adventurer such as yourself must have plenty of experience with voe!”

Okay, so maybe Zora didn’t venture out into the desert, but Gerudo definitely did travel out to the rivers. Link felt some relief at knowing he could speak to someone here. He considered her offer merely for the pleasure of having someone to talk to.

And well, it wasn’t like Link was particularly looking forward to crossing the desert in search of assassins. He nodded up at the woman. She smiled down at him and pressed her hand against his back to show him the way.

“Oh, wonderful! I’m Ashai. And you are?” 

“Link.”

Ashai led him past the soldier’s barracks and training grounds and into a little classroom tucked away beside Lady Riju’s estate. Three women were sitting in wait, and Link spotted Traysi snooping around the back of the room. Ashai showed him to an empty seat, and Link took it. 

She cleared her throat when she stepped up to the chalkboard. 

“Ladies,” she began, “We have a couple of guests today! Let’s show them what we’ve learned, shall we? Now, here’s your scenario: You’re walking down the street on your way somewhere, and a handsome voe you’ve never met approaches.”

The student seated at the front left raised her hand. 

“Yes Pasha?” 

Pasha stood and answered, “Oh! I would wave casually to him but also keep myself prepared in case he’s a distraction for a bandit ambush!”

Ashai applauded her, and Link joined in politely. “Excellent thinking, Pasha! That’s a prudent approach to a new situation! Remember that sometimes voe may look suspicious but are just being wary due to the sight of a daunting Gerudo. Ah, Dina! What would you do?”

Dina, at the seat next to Pasha, stood up as well. “Oh! I would enthusiastically greet him, approaching with a smile and my hands clearly empty!”

Ashai clapped more hesitantly, and Link followed her example. “Wow, Dina. That’s a very optimistic approach to take! Being overly friendly is an excellent way to put the stranger’s mind at ease, but—” The third student stood and cut the teacher off.

“Oh! I would walk casually toward him and then strike a fierce blow when he least suspected it!”

Link started to clap, but sat on his hands when he saw Ashai was rubbing at her temples. Behind his seat, Traysi snorted a laugh and took furious notes.

“Risa…. That would be a crime….” Ashai said. She gathered herself and turned to Link. “How about you, Link? In your travels, have you ever come across a similar situation?”

The students in the classroom turned to him expectantly. Link nodded slowly. 

The students excitedly spoke over each other to ask, “Was it a Hylian? Was he handsome? What did you do? Was he charming? Was he chivalrous? What happened?”

“I…” Link froze up at the four… no, five… sets of expectant eyes on him. His mouth clamped shut, but he pulled his hands free to answer. 

_ ‘I ran up with my spear because I mistook him for one of the lizalfos on the road. Then I reeled back in shock when he jumped from the bridge, not caring that I had a spear ready to launch at him. He introduced himself as the Zoran Prince and I gaped like an idiot because he’s beautiful and I nearly maimed him.’  _

The students turned to their teacher for a translation.

“Oh! Oh my! You attacked Prince Sidon?!” 

The students turned to Link with wide eyes. 

_ ‘Yeah… But he didn’t seem to mind… We’re friends now.’ _

Ashai looked at him as if he were a little unhinged, and he didn’t blame her at all. “I… I see! Well, next scenario!” 

Link snuck out of the classroom when he could and lost Traysi when she began to trail him by climbing up into the Town’s aqueduct system. 

* * *

 

White maned lynels were going to be the death of him, and no amount of Mipha’s Grace would be able to save him if he didn’t learn to time his goddess-damned dodges.

But, at least now he could cross off one more thing to do in this goddess-forsaken desert (Except it wasn’t. It really wasn’t. The Heroines were goddesses to the Gerudo in their own right. There were so many heroine statues.  _ Why _ were there so many heroine statues?) from the list on his Sheikah Slate. He would take on the Yiga right after he got the boots that would help him traverse the desert easily. 

Or  _ easier. _

At the very least, sand boots would make it easier to run from a molduga.

He was tired, hungry, cold, and above all else, _ irritable. _ He only just managed to remember to shove off his Snowquil set and yank on the Gerudo vai outfit before stepping out of the Daqo Chisay shrine. He had a feeling that Bozai wouldn’t take to him as kindly if he didn’t think he was a girl. 

But he soon regretted his decision to string the guy along. 

_ ‘The sand boots…’ _ he signed tiredly and gestured at the boots on the traveler’s feet. Bozai mumbled a bit, seeming to begrudge their bargain, but soon he was hopping on the hot sand barefoot and handing Link his footwear. Link thanked him and shoved them in his pack and turned to leave, but the bespectacled traveler reached out and wrapped a hand around his bare shoulder. 

“Wait!” He said in his reedy voice. “This whole endeavor has endeared you to me even more! ...Your cutely greedy side…” 

Link raised an eyebrow. This man really didn’t know how to pay a compliment. Maybe Ashai should start a class for voe out in the Bazaar, Goddess knew the few poor sods he’d come across that felt the aches and pains of love needed it. Link could give Ashai pointers. How hard could it be? After all, Sidon-

_ Have I mentioned how incredible you are? And how grateful I am? Because you are! And I am! _

Link felt his face flush at the memory, and at the clarity of Sidon’s voice in his head. Mentally, he chided at himself once again to  _ stop thinking about him. This isn’t helping anything. Stop.  _

Bozai went on, mistakingly emboldened by his blush.

“Your sassy playfully rude side…” 

Link felt his ears flick slightly in annoyance. 

“Y-your unexpectedly tough side…!”

Smart man. Link turned his head to regard him with a bored look. 

“Um… Would you...”

Oh Nayru, give him patience, because if he asked Din for strength, Bozai wouldn’t survive it. 

“G-g-go out… w-w-w-with-?” 

“Not a chance.” Link said plainly, and Bozai’s shoulders slumped. His hand fell from his shoulder and he whispered something about him not having to be so rude about it. Link snorted and waved goodbye, marching right back into Town to the barracks to see if there was anything else the Guard had found out about the Yiga’s movements. 

Nothing, they said. But an airheaded guard had gotten herself captured, and now Link was tasked with freeing her. 

He pulled out his slate and set a marker for the Yiga base’s valley and wrangled himself a wild sand seal, then drove it head-first into a billowing dust storm. All in a day’s work for the Hero of Hyrule.

* * *

 

What a joke. 

“If Vah Naboris is as much of a let-down as the Yiga boss, I’m calling bullshit and punching Ganon directly in the face.” He told the blood moon above the Gerudo tower. As if in response, the giant camel behind him in the distance let loose two enormous cracks of lightning. Link finished off his pile of bananas and called it a day. 

* * *

 

The Thunderblight in Vah Naboris nearly killed him. Being struck directly by lightning was anything but a pleasant experience, and it left one hell of a scar.

Mipha’s voice faded with the last of her Grace, and Thunderblight writhed as it roared, wounds of light from the Master Sword eating away at its infection. Light pouring out and purifying it until it melted away from existence completely. In the spot it disappeared rested a gift from the Goddess. 

Link’s hand went slack on the grip of the Master Sword and it clattered to the ground next to where he fell on his knees. He blinked back the dark spots dancing in his vision, refusing to pass out. Urbosa’s regal voice praised him for his strength of will, and thanked him for setting her free. She appeared on the upper level of the Beast, glowing faintly, surrounded by wisps. She was beautiful, imposing, and powerful. Link definitely understood Zelda’s attraction. 

He blinked. Wait, what?

“Are you remembering, Hero?” Urbosa asked him, a laugh at the edge of her voice. 

Link gave into the darkness calling him. 

He dreamt of her, and of Zelda. After, when the memories faded into actual dreams, he dreamt of saving Zelda, and rubbing her schoolgirl crush on the Gerudo Champion in her face after the grief she had given him about Mipha. 

* * *

 

Riju and the Gerudo were not as overbearing as the Rito when he showed up an hour later, hair on end and still smoking slightly from the fight. He waved the fairy tonic bottle at her when she asked if he would need a healer, and she took him at his non-word. It was a refreshing change. 

“And of course you are welcome to stay...” Link frowned, because she sounded like she was leading up to a ‘but’. 

“But I’m sorry to say we still don’t allow men. You will have to keep your disguise, and our healers will not be as lenient as I if they catch a glimpse of you.” 

Link looked down at the vai garb he wore, and winced at the scars and angry bruising over his bared stomach. That fairy tonic hadn’t been his strongest. 

Riju told him that he’d need to win over her people to borrow the Helm, and he couldn’t very well do that looking so battered, so he politely told her he’d return later and gladly accepted the weapons they presented him with.

He wandered back out into the desert and dropped to sit on the baking sand. He looked up to where Vah Naboris’ laser drew a line to Hyrule Castle. He  _ could _ just go to the castle now. The Divine Beasts were ready. His wounds didn’t hurt that much. He didn’t have anything left to do except…

 

Except climb that fucking fish tail of the palace in Zora Domain. 

 

He was standing and punching in the command to warp him to the Ne’ez Yohma Shrine before his mind could helpfully remind him that Sidon also happened to be in the palace in the Zora Domain.   

**Author's Note:**

> i reserve the right to make this longer but also the right to not. idk.


End file.
